It describes itself as “a new kind of video game entertainment league where gaming, culture, music, sports, fashion, and reality TV collide.” Now the Global Gaming League has intersected with the United States’ largest owner of radio stations, iHeartMedia.
Under the production, marketing, and distribution agreement, iHeart will co-create original podcasts with GGL, delivering weekly gaming and culture programming across the former’s multiplatform network. The partnership will also be amplified through GGL’s network of celebrity team owners, including T-Pain, Ric Flair, and Howie Mandel.
The deal has a personal thread running through it. GGL Founder and CEO Clinton Sparks was once an on-air host at iHeart Boston’s Hot 97.7. He will debut his own interview podcast, Get Familiar, with iHeartPodcasts later this year. “Gaming is culture,” Sparks said. “iHeart understands that its artists, talent, and listeners are gamers. This partnership brings that reality to the forefront.”
iHeart President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships Michael Biondo added, “Together, iHeart and GGL are creating a new blueprint for how gaming lives inside mainstream culture.”
iHeart isn’t the first major radio company to delve into the space; Beasley Media Group made an early move into esports several years ago with the purchase of the Houston Outlaws, one of twenty teams in the now-defunct professional Overwatch League. Activision-Blizzard ended the league in 2023 after internal restructuring.